Scottish Football Team Known For It’s Charity Work Is Robbed And Bank Offers No Help

Hamilton Academical FC is a Scottish Premiership Football Club with a difference. The Chief Executive Colin McGowan has created a Community Outreach programme that acts as a Centre of Excellence, guiding the young, vulnerable, under privileged and less able towards specifically unique healthy activities and creating meaningful activities for other age groups. This Centre of Excellence also supports and co-ordinates a number of charities that are housed within their grounds.

Colin McGowan in the children’s play area at the back of Hamilton’s ground. Picture: Robert Perry(The Scotsman)

Here is a list of what this great club has to offer those in need within it’s community:

Co-ordination and Support of Addiction Programmes

Blameless Charity

Blameless Charity was formed to provide fun times, happy memories and a vision of hope for the future for children and families affected by alcoholism and addiction. www.blamelessuk.co.uk

Soldiers Off The Street Scotland

Soldiers Off The Street Scotland is the Scottish branch of Soldiers Off The Street UK.
A new charity with a dedicated group of people determined to help the forgotten ex service personnel whose lives have been affected by homelessness.

Supporting Autism & Additional Support Needs Community

Our aim is to ensure all families across Scotland, are given a clear and concise pathway to finding the suitable support as and when required whilst ensuring they receive optimum care from statutory and non-statutory services.

Hamilton & District Men’s Shed

The aim of Hamilton & District Men’s shed is to work in partnership with other organisations and agencies to develop opportunities and activities for people retired or thinking about retiring, they also want to encourage people to remain physically and mentally active and promote active citizenship.

Lifeskills Care

Lifeskills Care is a registered Scottish charity working within local communities, aiming to enhance self esteem and motivation for individuals who are looking to increase their employment prospects and improve their job opportunities.

As you can see this club really is so much more than just a Football Club and when you walk around the stadium you really get the sense that this place is a sanctuary for so many. This makes what you are about to read all the more distressing …

This great ‘little’ Scottish Premiership club has fallen victim to an elaborate fraud and is thought to have lost in the region of £900,000. The Royal Bank of Scotland have refused to offer the club any support or help in the matter and as it stands the club has stated that directors have had to plug the financial gap themselves following the incident.

Hamilton have the lowest budget of any club in Scotland’s top flight and yet do so much for those less fortunate and those battling addiction.

“At this point it is imperative that we remain calm and work together as we go through one of the most difficult situations we have faced as a club. In the interim, the directors intend to inject funds to meet the club’s ongoing obligations until the investigation is complete to ensure continuity,” said chairman Les Gray.

The bank is more than 70 per cent owned by the Government after being bailed out in 2008.

It has been suggested bonus figure for employees have been disclosed to the UK Financial Investments (UKFI), which manages the taxpayer’s stake in the bank.

The number would have to be formally approved by Government ministers.

The latest news from the bank is that they have kicked out a plea from the club to get back about the money lost in an elaborate scam last year.

But club directors, who pumped in their own cash to tide the club over, have been told their claim has been rejected.

A spokesperson for the Royal Bank of Scotland said this earlier in the month: “We regret that Hamilton Academical Football Club has been the victim of a scam and appreciate that this is a difficult time for the club and its fans.

“RBS is working with the club and Police Scotland to identify the perpetrators of this scam. The bank is confident that there has been no breakdown in our fraud prevention process in regards to this incident.

A spokesman for Hamilton Accies Football Club (HAFC) said: “The board of HAFC are most certainly not in agreement with the statement the Royal Bank of Scotland have released, as they have been made aware it is not that simple.

The news led to stickers stating ‘Give Accies their money back’ being placed on Royal Bank of Scotland cash machines across the town.

It is an absolute travesty that a mega bank making huge losses is still able to pay out £340m in bonuses but they can’t even offer any help or support or even do as little as launch an investigation into how Hamilton Academical FC was frauded out of over £900k.

For a club that does so much for it’s community I think we as a community must put pressure on The Royal Bank Of Scotland to offer some help. Why wouldn’t they want to launch an internal investigation to ensure their systems and procedures help prevent this sort of fraud from happening again in the future? So many unanswered questions.

Please share this article and help Hamilton Academical get their money back so they can get back putting all their energy into football and helping the community.

Below is a video of a young football fan getting the day out of his life. This is just one tiny example of how this is so much more than a Football club.

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I created EducateInspireChange (EiC) in 2012 to help keep people informed , to encourage people to expand their consciousness and to inspire people to reach for their dreams. I believe that to create real positive change in this world we need to first change ourselves, this might mean living more sustainably, eating more healthy, understanding yourself better…ultimately anything that improves your state of mind as this will help to make the world a better place.

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